Dubai-17th September 2019: The Center for Arab Genomics Studies, a division of the Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Medical Sciences, announced that registration to the first MENA-MYO Practical Teaching course in Myology is now closed. The course is being organized under the patronage of Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Medical Sciences from the 12th to 14th October 2019 at Roda Al Murooj hotel, in Dubai UAE. The course, which is being organized in collaboration with the Institute of Myology, is endorsed by Treat-NMD, Asian Oceanian Myology Center and International Child Neurology Association.
Dr. Mahmoud Taleb Al-Ali, the Director of the Center for Arab Genomic Studies said that the course is organized jointly by neuromuscular specialists from Europe and MENA, such as Dr J. Andoni URTIZBEREA, from France who has served for many years as the Medical Director of the AFM-Telethon and then as General Delegate of the Institut de Myologie of Paris, and also as Scientific Director of the European Neuromuscular Center in the Netherlands. Together with AFM’s support, he has contributed to the establishment of many worldwide networks in myology.
Dr Andoni said, “neuromuscular diseases represent a significant number of patients, especially in the Middle-East where marriages between relatives are fairly common. As a whole, these devastating diseases (mainly muscular dystrophy and spinal muscular atrophy) represent an important burden to patients, families, caregivers and health authorities of the region.”
He added, “Dubai represents an ideal location to teach junior and less junior physicians confronted with these rare diseases in their clinical practice. The partnership with CAGS has been very efficient and fruitful. The past five years have seen three revolutions running in parallel: a scientific revolution has enabled physicians and researchers to know more about the clinical expression and pathogenesis of these hereditary and sometimes non-hereditary disorders, a technological revolution also underway with easier to sophisticated methods such as massive parallel sequencing (next generation sequencing or NGS) and muscle/nerve imaging and a therapeutic revolution has occurred recently and triggers great hope in the Community for a growing number of conditions.”
Other faculty members at the course include Prof. André Megarbane from Lebanon, Prof. Yann Pereon, from France, Dr Edward Cuplerfrom KSA, and Dr Waseem Fathallah, Dr Tarek El-Azzabi, Dr. Firas Al-Rawi and Dr. Fatma Al-Jasmi, all from the UAE.
